Choosing A Luxury Car

Available Luxury Brands

Before you grace a lease with your John Hancock, it is important to do ample research to ensure you purchase the vehicle that is right for you. There are many choices when it comes to luxury cars. You have to make the choice between whether you want your car to be a super comfortable luxo-sedan or a lightning fast, sport oriented coupe or sport sedan. Once you have made your choice, it can either become simpler, or harder. It is simpler to choose between pure comfort cars than it is to choose between luxury sports cars. Lets familiarize ourselves with the best and most well-known luxury brands.

AudiPart of the Volkswagen Group, Audi is a premier German luxury brand aimed mostly at sport luxury vehicles.

AcuraAcura is Honda's luxury segment. Acura is known mostly for comfort offering little in the way of performance sport vehicles.

BMWKnown for their outstanding performance, BMW vehicles are the most sought after sport luxury vehicles largely due to their German heritage and manufacturing designed with the Autobahn in mind.

CadillacGood ol' American luxury. Owned by General Motors, Cadillac is known as the best luxury vehicle produced by the United States. Most Cadillacs are geared more towards comfort, however, GM has brought Cadillac up in the performance market with their V models.

InfinitiPart of Nissan Motors, Infiniti provides a fair balance between comfort and sport with a slight bias towards sport. Infiniti builds high-performance engines for their size and lend that performance to their usually great sport tuned handling.

JaguarPreviously owned by the Ford Motor Company, Jaguar is now in bed with Land Rover as its own parent company. Jaguars once stood for pure comfort with their large, roomy sedans. Lately, however, Jaguar has been moving more towards the performance market with their sleek and sexy sedans, coupes and convertibles.

Land RoverLand Rover has always been and remains a luxury SUV company. As such, they are typically geared more towards comfort than sport. LR tends to be among the most expensive of Luxury Utility Vehicles.

LexusOwned by Toyota, Lexus is aimed at comfort with their performance segment only just emerging in the last few years. Lexus is known for their plush, comfortable vehicles and tend to be held as the best of luxury car brands due to their affordability and dependability being associated with Toyota Motor Company.

LincolnAnother American luxury brand, Lincoln is a Ford Motor Co. baby. Lincoln has been known for their exceptional comfort and are used most frequently as limousines and livery cars. Lately, however, Lincoln has released more trendy vehicles to compete with a wider range of luxury car brands.

Mercedes-BenzProbably the most well known luxury car, Mercedes-Benz has become somewhat of a status symbol in America. Mercedes has a pretty even split between comfort and performance vehicles, though typically not rolled into one vehicle.

PorscheThe king of performance luxury cars. Porsche manages to remain in the realm of relative affordability while maintaining high, almost super-car-like performance.

Rolls-RoyceThe end-all, be-all of sheer luxury. Rolls-Royce, owned by BMW Group, is nearly the best, most high-end luxury experience you will have inside of a vehicle. Rolls-Royce is about pure comfort, offering no allusions to performance.

VolvoTypically known to be among the safest cars for their advances in safety technology. Volvo is a Swedish company with an aim for comfort in their vehicles.

Comfort

If you've decided to pursue a car with an emphasis on comfort, the choices become simple. Each luxury brand usually only has one or two vehicles that excel in this category. An exception to this common stereotype is Lexus as they do comfort very well. Lexus vehicles all use 1st class materials to provide a truly wonderful cabin experience. Pitting the Lexus, Mercedes-Benz & BMW flagship sedans head to head, the Lexus LS will excel most instances. The LS uses softer leathers, plastics & vinyls than the Mercedes S-Class or the BMW 7-Series. The LS also leads the pack in terms of polish and finesse. The S-Class, however, excels in terms of available technologies within the vehicle, but only minimally. BMW's 7-Series takes 1st place for performance as it retains BMW's sport heritage while maintaining an excellent quality of comfort.

If you're looking for a luxury car that is more affordable than flagships tend to be, Lexus offers the ES which is a mid-size sedan with Lexus' famous quality interior & comfort. Mercedes-Benz offers the E-Class sedan which also offers a sexy coupe and convertible variant. The E-Class is also available with different engine choices all the way up to Mercedes' AMG line of performance engines where-as the ES from Lexus is not. BMW provides the 5-Series sedan also with an optional V8 as well as BMW's M variant of performance vehicles. If you prefer comfort with a sportier look, then Lexus also offers the GS sedan in the same realm with an optional V8 and optional Hybrid power-train.

Performance

For those who wish to take their car to the track every once in a while, there are a plethora of high-performance luxury cars available. For practicality reasons, super cars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti and so forth will be excluded. BMW offers some of the best high-performance vehicles with their M-Series vehicles. Likewise, Mercedes-Benz offers the AMG. Both performance modules of these two companies are good. From this stand point, your choice is mostly made by taste and budget. Lexus has only just begun to offer their F Performance line and currently only offer the IS in F configuration.

On the track, many people will enjoy the M3 from BMW most due to it's nimbleness and 414 horses in the stable. Other great track cars come from Porsche as almost all of their line-up offer great performance and power.

Comparisons

In sum, for a truly luxurious experience, Lexus is a surefire bet. With their high quality leathers, plastics, vinyls and woods, Lexus surpasses most other brands. If an adrenaline rush is what you're after, hit up BMW for one of their wonderful M luxury sports cars. Drive safely and enjoy the ride!

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All above statements were made based on personal experience with all above mentioned automotive manufacturers. This article has not been based off of individual opinion and is unbiased. Real world observations are what fueled this piece.

Comments

wizwaz3
Thank you! I appreciate your response and kind words. I wanted to write about luxury cars in a way that I would want to read about them with real-world comparisons and hands-on information. I hope others like it and find it useful as well.

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